Don't think Wales is the only country getting excited about the impending tour - the temperature is rising in New Zealand, too. Here, an All Black legend and a Lions stalwart talk about the importance of wearing their respective colours

THE Lions' arrival is hotly anticipated by their New Zealand hosts. Kiwi newspapers are feeding a nation of rugby fans a daily diet of pre-tour news and analysis.

Players and pundits have said these are must-win games for the All Blacks. The Lions will play fewer games than previous tours with a bigger squad, more superstars and more coaching staff.

One All-Black legend has written about his pride at playing against the Lions when Lions tours to New Zealand were an amateur affair, though just as bitterly contested.

Sir Wilson Whineray played 77 matches for the All Blacks between 1957 and 1965. He captained the side in 30 of the 32 tests he played, including four against the Lions in 1959. Behind Sean Fitzpatrick, he is his country's longest-serving captain, and perhaps its best.

Writing in the New Zealand Herald he said, "The 1959 series I was privileged to play in was a wonderful series of matches and three of the four tests were won by three points or less.

"There was nothing between the teams; it was a memory I will never lose.

They were a team of solid, no-frills forwards with world- class locks in Bill Mulcahy and Rhys Williams, well supported by props Gordon Wood and Ray Prosser and loose forwards John Faull, Noel Murphy and Haydn Murphy.

"Behind the scrum lurked the finest set of backs I ever played against, a number of them well-regarded track speedsters prepared to attack from anywhere when they found space.

"Fullback Ken Scotland, first five-eighth Bev Risman and halfback Dickie Jeeps would find a place in most teams, but the stars were the outer backs of Peter Jackson, David Hewitt and Tony O'Reilly. They were brilliant.

"Overall, we had an edge in the forwards and they were a stronger unit behind the scrum."

The All Blacks won that series three-one. This time the All Blacks will win by two games, he said.

"The first test was the "penalty test" with the All Blacks winning 18 (six penalties) to 17 (four tries, a conversion and a penalty). It wasn't the way I would have chosen to win, but you play in real time, minute by minute and grab whatever points you can.

"The second and third tests went well for us and the fourth never really came alive as a spectacle. Late in the game, with the Lions leading 9-6, Clarke missed a relatively easy penalty and I heard many in the crowd weren't disappointed with this. The series could happily have been tied."

Sir Wilson, 69, made his fortune in business outside rugby. As a prop, his speciality was to run on to the ball at lineouts - a move named the "willie away".

The Lions still hold a special allure for All Black supporters, he said.

"There is no doubt that the Lions have been the most welcomed and enjoyed of all our rugby opponents," he said.

"In part, this is due to the infrequency of visits, but perhaps more to the intriguing cocktail that is thrown together when the finest players from four nations come together for one tour.

"On occasions, in the past, players have not always blended smoothly, coming from distant and varied clubs and differing backgrounds. This will not be a problem today as the players are all professionals and bring this discipline to their work. Further, many of them play together in clubs throughout Britain and Ireland and mix socially.

"There could be more of a problem with the size of the squad. In 1959 the Lions brought 30 players to play 31 games in Australia and New Zealand. There was a manager and a secretary but no coach. Even by the more relaxed standards of amateur rugby this was totally foolish.

"The 2005 party at this stage comprises 44 players. The Lions will play only 11 games on tour. The point about player numbers and games is that players come together on the field and they need to experience pressure, stress, triumph and tragedies together to develop the unshakeable team spirit that ignites top teams.

"Many in the squad will play few games. Indeed in my playing days the only grumbles I heard was from players who didn't think they were getting enough match play.

"The 2005 Lions team will be formidable, but face the difficulty of coming together quickly as the squad is big and there are few warm-up games. We can face them with confidence. If the All Blacks can recapture the form of the late 2004 tour, I predict a 2-1 result in our favour."

BILLIONAIRE businessman Tony O'Reilly has achieved a lot. He was the head of the Heinz corporation and is an international media tycoon and newspaper owner.

But before business there was rugby for Ireland and the Lions.

O'Reilly, now 69-year-old Sir Anthony, played four tests for the Lions in South Africa in 1955 and six tests in Australia and New Zealand in 1959.

Writing for the New Zealand Herald, he said, "The wonderful thing about rugby, and Lions tours in particular, is that they are so important in one's life that they live on as though it were yesterday."

He said few experiences in a rugby-playing career can top running out for the Lions in New Zealand - even if you are on the losing side.

"It was a memory of a lifetime, almost six months of extraordinary rugby, great friendship, a chance to soak up New Zealand's short history and its determination to achieve all its goals in its own time and by its own methods.

"New Zealand is a singular country, with singular passions, and foremost among them is rugby. The Lions will know they have been on tour. The provincial games will be almost as tough as the tests, and because the world stage, now through television, offers rugby on a grand scale, it will be a world event.

"I can still remember as an excited 18-year-old, coming down the aircraft steps at Jan Smuts Airport, Johannesburg, in 1955 with a brilliant group of Lions.

"Cliff Morgan, our icon, and to my mind the greatest Welsh first five-eighths of all time (perhaps heresy in New Zealand), was our choir master. He had coached us in the Afrikaans version of Sarie Marais, and to the undisguised delight of the waiting crowd of 10,000 people, we sang the great Afrikaner folksong in Afrikaans on the tarmac.

"It was to be the song of the tour, but also the symbol of a team that was to enthral South Africa, who had beaten the All Blacks four-nil in 1949 and were now to have their first defeat at the hands of a Lions team that played rugby in a way that concentrated on back play with Morgan, our star, and not forward power.

"Despite leading 2-1 going into the final test, we split the series 2-2, and have the fondest memories of a remarkable tour.

"That tour led us to the '59 Lions in Australia/New Zealand. Having beaten Australia two-nil in the tests in Brisbane and Sydney, we went with a certain confidence to New Zealand.

"The first test will remain, forever, a matter of controversy between myself and the deputy chairman of APN, Sir Wilson Whineray, who was captain of the 1959 All Blacks.

"We scored four long-range tries. Don Clarke kicked six penalties. In present-day scoring, we won at least 20-18. Sadly, in the devalued scoring of those days with a try earning only 3 points, we lost 18-17, and Clarke's six penalty goals in the mud of Dunedin will live in New Zealand rugby history.

"I think the thing that struck New Zealanders after this, shall we say, unjustified defeat, was the simple gaiety of the team and the sense that, at the end of it all, it was only a game - even if it was one we clearly should have won!

"The second test was won in the last minute by a try by Clarke. Again, this could have gone either way. With a late tackle by Clarke on me, which was so late that he could have had a cup of tea before he hit me, we got a penalty and not a penalty try, and that decided the match.

"In the third test, we were comprehensively beaten, and Clarke kicked a magnificent drop goal and a long-range penalty. In the final test, almost willed on by the New Zealand crowd, we beat New Zealand for the first time since the Second World War, and entered the history books when Andy Mulligan presented me with a try in the corner, my 17th in New Zealand, early in the second half and Bev Risman scored a brilliant try 20 minutes later.

"We left the following day. Mulligan and I took over the traffic control tower at the airport at Auckland and misdirected planes all over the Pacific. We sang Now is the Hour with tears in our eyes, and left New Zealand, but New Zealand never left us."

He too makes comparisons about Lions tours then and now.

"We had 30 players and two managers on our tour. This tour will be 44 players, 27 officials and countless media.

"All 44 players are enormously fortunate that their careers crested in that one year in the decade when New Zealand again becomes the focal point of all world rugby. Whatever the result, rugby on the world stage will benefit hugely by this tour.

"I hope that rugby will glitter and, equally important, that the tourists will have the opportunity to enjoy the sights and the sounds of one of the most hospitable, interesting and independent countries in the world."

Sir Anthony O'Reilly is executive chairman of Independent News & Media, which is the largest single shareholder in APN News & Media